North by Northwest quotes

View Quote CIA agent: [referring to Thornhill] He's the poor sucker who got mistaken for George Kaplan...Vandamm's men must have grabbed him, tried to put him away using Lester Townsend's house - and the unsuspecting Mr. Townsend winds up with a stray knife in his back. C'est la guerre. It's so horribly sad. How is it I feel like laughing?

View Quote Man: That's funny...That plane's dustin' crops where there ain't no crops.

View Quote Newspaper article: A photograph has been tentatively identified as that of Roger Thornhill, a Manhattan advertising executive, indicating that the name of George Kaplan which he gave to an attendant at the General Assembly Building was false - a possible motive for the slaying suggested by the discovery. And earlier today Thornhill had appeared at a Glen Cove Long Island police court and charged with drunk driving with a stolen car. In his defense, he charged that the murder victim, Mr. Townsend had tried to kill him the night before.

View Quote The Professor: We do nothing...That's right, nothing. Oh, we could congratulate ourselves on a marvelous stroke of good fortune. Our non-existent decoy George Kaplan created to divert suspicion from our actual agent has fortituously become a live decoy... What can we do to save him, without endangering our own agent?...We didn't invent our non-existent man and give him the name of George Kaplan, establish elaborate behavior patterns for him, move his prop belongings in and out of hotel rooms for our own private amusement. We created George Kaplan and labored successfully to convince Vandamm that this was our own agent hot on his trail for a desperately important reason...If we make the slightest move to suggest that there is no such agent as George Kaplan, give any hint to Vandamm that he's pursuing a decoy instead of our own agent, then our agent working right under Vandamm's very nose will immediately face suspicion, exposure and assassination, like the two others who went before.

View Quote Vandamm: That wasn't very sporting, using real bullets.

View Quote Clara: I don't see why you want me along.
Roger: Well, you lend a certain air of respectability.
Clara: Don't be sarcastic, Roger.

View Quote Clara: Roger, I think we should go.
Roger: Don't be nervous.
Clara: I'm not nervous. I'll be late for the bridge club.
Roger: Good, you'll lose less than usual.

View Quote Eve: I tipped the steward five dollars to seat you here if you should come in.
Roger: Is that a proposition?
Eve: I never discuss love on an empty stomach.
Roger: You've already eaten!
Eve: But you haven't.
...
Roger: Oh, you're that type.
Eve: What type?
Roger: Honest.
Eve: Not really.
Roger: Good, because honest women frighten me.
Eve: Why?
Roger: I don't know. Somehow they seem to put me at a disadvantage.
Eve: Because you're not honest with them?
Roger: Exactly.
...
Roger: The moment I meet an attractive woman, I have to start pretending I have no desire to make love to her.
Eve: What makes you think you have to conceal it?
Roger: She might find the idea objectionable.
Eve: Then again, she might not.
...
Eve: I'm Eve Kendall. I'm twenty-six and unmarried. Now you know everything.
Roger: Tell me. What do you do besides lure men to their doom on the Twentieth Century Limited?
Eve: I'm an industrial designer.
Roger: Jack Phillips. Western sales manager for Kingby Electronics.
Eve: No, you're not. You're Roger Thornhill of Madison Avenue, and you're wanted for murder on every front page in America, and don't be so modest.
Roger: Whoops!
Eve: Oh, don't worry, I won't say a word.
Roger: How come?
Eve: I told you. It's a nice face.
Roger: Is that the only reason?
Eve: It's going to be a long night.
Roger: True.
Eve: And I don't particularly like the book I've started.
Roger: Ahhh.
Eve: You know what I mean?
Roger: Uh, let me think. [Pause] Yes, I know exactly what you mean...
...
Eve: Incidentally, I wouldn't order any dessert if I were you.
Roger: I get the message.
Eve: That isn't exactly what I meant. This train seems to be making an unscheduled stop, and I just saw two men get out of a police car as we pulled into the station. They weren't smiling.

View Quote Eve: I wanted to tell you, I mean apologize.
Roger: No need. I understand. All in the line of duty.
Eve: I did treat you miserably.
Roger: I, uh, I hated you for it.
Eve: I didn't want you to go on thinking that I...
Roger: I, I used some pretty harsh words, I'm sorry.
Eve: They hurt deeply.
Roger: Naturally if I'd known.
Eve: I couldn't tell you.
Roger: Of course not.
Eve: Could I?
Roger: No, I guess not.
...
Eve: I guess I had nothing to do that weekend, so I decided to fall in love.
Roger: That's nice.
Eve: Eventually, the Professor and his Washington colleagues approached me with a few sordid details about Philip. They told me that my relationship with him made me uniquely valuable to them.
Roger: Mm-mmm. So you became a Girl Scout, huh?
Eve: Maybe it was the first time anyone ever asked me to do anything worthwhile.
Roger: Has life been like that?
Eve: Mm-hmm.
Roger: How come?
Eve: Men like you!
Roger: What's wrong with men like me?
Eve: They don't believe in marriage.
Roger: I've been married twice.
Eve: See what I mean?
Roger: Now I may go back to hating you: it was more fun. [They kiss passionately.]

View Quote Eve: I'm a big girl.
Roger: Yeah, and in all the right places too. [They share a lingering kiss.]
Eve: You know, this is ridiculous, you know that don't you?
Roger: Yesss.
Eve: I mean, we've hardly met.
Roger: That's right.
Eve: How do I know you aren't a murderer?
Roger: You don't.
Eve: Maybe you're planning to murder me right here tonight?
Roger: Shall I?
Eve: Please do. [Another long kiss.]
Roger: Beats flying, doesn't it?
Eve: We should stop.
Roger: Immediately.
Eve: I want to know more about you.
Roger: What more could you know?
Eve: You're an advertising man, that's all I know.
Roger: That's right. [They shift positions.] The train's a little unsteady.
Eve: Who isn't?
Roger: What else do you know?
Eve: You've got taste in clothes, taste in food...
Roger: ...and taste in women. I like your flavor.
Eve: You're very clever with words. You can probably make them do anything for you. Sell people things they don't need. Make women who don't know you fall in love with you.
Roger: I'm beginning to think I'm underpaid.
...
Roger: Now where were we?
Eve: Here. [They kiss again passionately.]
Roger: Yes. Nice of you to have opened the bed.
Eve: Yes.
Roger: Only one bed.
Eve: Yes.
Roger: That's a good omen, don't you think?
Eve: Wonderful.
Roger: You know what that means?
Eve: Hmmm.
Roger: What? Tell me.
Eve: It means you're going to sleep on the floor.

View Quote Eve: You're supposed to be critically wounded.
Roger: I never felt more alive.
Eve: Whose side are you on?
Roger: Yours always, darling.

View Quote Eve:I want you to do a favor for me. A big, big favor.
Roger: Name it.
Eve: I want you to leave right now. Stay far away from me and don't come near me again. We're not going to get involved. Last night was last night and it's all there was and that's all there is. There isn't going to be anything more between us. So please, goodbye, good luck, no conversation, just leave.

View Quote Leonard: You surely would have suspected. Why else would you have decided not to tell Miss Kendall why our little treasure here has a belly full of microfilm?
Vandamm: You seem to be trying to fill mine with rotten apples.
Leonard: Sometimes the truth does taste like a mouthful of worms.
Vandamm: Truth? I've heard nothing but innuendos.
Leonard: Call it my woman's intuition, if you will, but I've never trusted neatness. Neatness is always the result of deliberate planning.
Vandamm: She shot him in a moment of fear and anger. You were there yourself. You saw it. You know what I think? I think you're jealous. No, I mean it. I'm very touched, very.
[Leonard pushes Vandamm and fires Eve's gun at him...that is loaded with blanks]
Leonard: It's an old Gestapo trick. Shoot one of your own people to show that you're not one of them. They've just freshened it up a bit with blank cartridges.
...
Leonard: You're not taking her on the plane with you?
Vandamm: Of course I am. Like our friends, I too believe in neatness, Leonard.This matter is best disposed of from a great height - over water.

View Quote Roger: [After a valet tells him he will return his pressed suit in 20 minutes] Now, what can a man do with his clothes off for twenty minutes? Couldn't he have taken an hour?
Eve: You could always take a cold shower. [She helps him remove his suit jacket.]
Roger: That's right. When I was a little boy, I wouldn't even let my mother undress me.
Eve: You're a big boy now.
Roger: Yes, tell me. How does a girl like you get to be a girl like you?
Eve: Lucky, I guess.
Roger: No, not lucky. Naughty, wicked, up to no good. Ever kill anyone? Because I bet you could tease a man to death without half trying. So stop trying, huh?

View Quote Roger: [at an art auction] How do we know it's not a fake? It looks like a fake.
Bidder: Well, one thing we know. You're no fake. You are a genuine idiot.
Roger: Thank you.